Wasteland
by Armbar Nation
Summary: Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns have been living rough since the zombies appeared and the world went to hell. When they find themselves in a camp owned by Hunter and Nicole Helmsley they reunite with one of their closest friends and the worst appears to behind them but danger is never far away in the new world. Are the zombies the main threat or are people to be feared even more now?


Dean Ambrose stared out of the window on the passenger's side of the car as it sped along a narrow road which led through a heavily wooded area. Not being one with nature, he had no idea what the huge trees which lined the road and blocked out the early evening sun were called. "Roast beef," he mumbled.

A sigh came from the driver's side of the car. "You seriously need to stop that now," Roman Reigns told him without taking his eyes off the deserted road. "For the last ten minutes you've sat there naming so many amazing foods. I'm just as hungry as you are, so please stop it would you?"

"I just want something to fucking eat," Dean groaned in frustration. "Something decent. Just once. Fucking dog food, man," he groaned, remembering back to his last so called meal from the night before, a can of dog food. Actually, half a can of dog food as Roman had shared it with him. Their hopes of finding food had soared when they had happened across a gas station which had not seemed to be too badly trashed. There had even been gas left to put in the car, but unfortunately someone had long since raided the small store and taken all of the food and anything else that could conceivably be useful in any way. Roman had found the can of dog food lying on the floor in a corner. It must have been knocked from a shelf and rolled there.

"It's about staying alive now, you know that," Roman shrugged. Eating dog food was hardly his idea of dream living either, but it was food and that was what mattered. That was what life was now; a constant mission to find food and drink for yourself as well as bullets to shoot the zombies, or walkers, with if you got really lucky. Roman or Dean didn't know where the first of the walkers had appeared from or what had turned them into walkers to begin with, but what was now common knowledge was that all the walkers appeared to want to do was eat people. Also common knowledge was the fact that if you got bitten by a walker you were infected with whatever caused people to turn into those things, so you were as good as dead. The only way to kill a walker was to destroy its brain, either by stabbing it in the head or shooting it. Even if a walker was decapitated the head would somehow still remain alive, sitting on the floor making biting actions. The walkers had a keen sense of smell as well as their adequate sight and hearing, so it was very difficult to go near to them and remain unnoticed.

"Fucking things," Dean growled as the car sped past a solitary walker. This one had once been an old man. It was standing at the side of the road, looking at the car as it went past before starting to amble after it, as if it could possibly catch up. When the shit had hit the fan, Dean had set out with his two closest friends and fellow police officers, Roman and Seth, knowing that the three of them would stand a good chance of being able to fend for themselves in the hell hole that the world was rapidly becoming. For the first few weeks things had not been too bad, as far as you could call surviving in a zombie apocalypse not too bad. There had been places to loot to get food and drink and they had taken plenty of ammunition with them for their guns when they had essentially raided the police station that they had worked at for supplies. Their original plan had just been to make it to the next city and hope that the infection had not spread there, but there had been no such luck because the next city was crawling with walkers too.

One day, they had stopped to loot a store for food and supplies, but some walkers had taken them by surprise by smashing their way through the store's windows. Seth had been cut off from Dean and Roman and had been left with no choice but to make an escape through the rear exit, promising to catch up with them outside. Dean and Roman had fought their way out of the store's front entrance but there had been no sign of Seth. They had not seen him since and that had been more than a month ago. Despite the odds, both Dean and Roman remained certain that their friend was alive. Deep down they just knew it. "Where do you think that bastard is right now?" Dean quipped, thinking about Seth and the last time they had seen him.

"Knowing Seth, he's probably found himself some place to hide out and he's probably got a bunch of women all round him, feeding him and satisfying his every need," Roman grinned. "The son of a bitch always was the lucky one, especially with women." All three of them were single but Seth had always seemed to have a woman of some description on the go.

Dean made a sound that was something in between a laugh and a grunt before returning to staring blankly out of the window. "Where the fuck are we even going?" He groaned ten minutes later. "This is just mile after mile of stupid trees."

"You know where we're going," Roman said. "We saw that van head off down this road earlier and I want to know where it went. We need to find somewhere to live for a while and get ourselves sorted out. There must be groups of people holed up in camps or whatever, away from the city." The city was definitely not a place to try and live, or even to visit if you could help it. There were so many walkers there that even going there was close to a suicide mission.

Again, Dean returned to staring out of the window. Watching the scenery flashing past did nothing to take his mind off of the hunger or the thirst that he felt or even off of the fact that he smelled worse than a pig farm. He couldn't even remember when the last time was that he had been able to have something even close to a decent wash, let alone a shower with hot running water. He began to drift towards sleep, knowing that it was important to get it whenever he could as there was no telling when the next opportunity might be. The car's brakes slamming on brought him back to full alert instantly. "The fuck?" He asked Roman, but he could already see the answer up ahead as he said it.

"Well, we found a camp," Roman said, stating the obvious. Up ahead, the road was blocked by a huge metal gateway which looked to be at least ten feet high and was part of an equally large wall made up of what looked to be huge, thick metal plates of some kind. There was no sign of life anywhere but there was a guard tower of sorts inside the camp which would allow whoever was on duty there to look over the wall on both of the corners which were visible from the road. There was another similar tower near to the gate. There might not have been signs of life, but there was no doubt in either of their minds that there were multiple pairs of eyes fixed on their car as they sat there. "So, do we risk it or not?" Roman asked. Walkers were not the only threat in the world now by any means. Encountering other people could be just as dangerous, if not more so at times.

"We've got to, bro," Dean pointed out. "We're starving for God's sake, and we don't have much water left either. We've been rationing ourselves for days. We can't go on like this and we both know it. They've obviously got supplies in there. It pains me to say it, but we need to throw ourselves at their mercy and ask for some food and even a place to live if they'll let us. I don't see what other choice we have. At least we're in this thing, so if they kick off we can get the hell out of here, hopefully before they do us any damage."

"Maybe it would be better to park the car and approach the gate on foot?" Roman countered. "If we intend to throw ourselves at their mercy as you put it, and have them take us in we need to look as non aggressive as possible. They'll likely have us turn over our guns. Are we prepared to do that?"

"You're the smart one," Dean grinned. "I'm just the idiot who tags along."

Roman smiled as he pulled the car over to the side of the road and killed the engine. Dean liked to act like he was crazy, and sometimes he was exactly that, but he was definitely not an idiot. "Okay, we hand over the guns if we have to. We need food, that's the bottom line. Come on, let's get this over with," Roman said, opening his door and getting out. If there was a potential positive to this it was that both he and Dean were wearing the black police issue body armour that they had taken when they raided the station for guns and ammo before fleeing with Seth. The police issue gear would indicate to whoever was on guard at this camp that they were, or at least had been, respectable people before the world fell apart. There was no guarantee that this would matter to whoever approached them, but there was only one way to find out.

The two men got their assault rifles from the back seat of the car and then walked slowly up the middle of the road towards the camp's gate, guns pointed down at the floor so as not to appear threatening. "Ever feel like you might take a bullet at any moment?" Dean asked quietly as they approached the enormous gate.

"I think they could have shot us by now if they wanted to," Roman pointed out.

At that moment a very stern faced man's head and shoulders appeared in the guard tower near to the gate, as did the barrel of an assault rifle which was directed right at them. The man looked to be in his mid forties and had very short hair that appeared to be almost ginger in colour. "Guns on the ground," he ordered loudly.

"We're only looking for food," Roman shouted back. "We don't want any trouble."

"Put those fucking guns down then."

"Do as he says," Roman said to Dean before setting his gun down on the ground beside him. Dean hesitated for a moment, but then followed his friend's example, keeping his mind on the fact that they needed food.

"I'm coming down there and I'm going to open the gate," the man in the guard tower shouted. "You see those two towers? There's a gun on each one of you up there. One false move and you get put down. Understood?"

"Like I said, we want food, not trouble," Roman shouted back.

The man nodded and raised a two-way hand held radio and spoke into it. Dean and Roman were just able to hear what he said. "I need Sergeant Rousey at the main gate. Now."

"We get a welcoming committee at least," Dean mumbled to Roman as the man disappeared from sight in the guard tower.

"Sergeant?" Roman mumbled back.

A moment later the huge gate began to slide open, making a metallic screeching noise as it slid to the side. Dean and Roman were able to see that the camp actually appeared to consist of several reasonably sized houses which were built on the left side of the road. When it was built this must have been a small development of very expensively priced homes for those rich enough to be able to afford them. They were not huge houses, but the location and the architecture told the story. The man from the guard tower appeared once more, this time on the road, walking through the gateway. "You can come in, but you stand here and don't move until Sergeant Rousey gets here. Try anything and I put you down."

"You got it," Roman agreed easily as he and Dean walked into the camp. The man who had greeted them was a beast of a man, he looked to be almost seven feet tall. Now that they were inside the camp they could see that the houses to the left of the road were nothing compared to it's main feature. Off to the right, set back from the road, there was a huge mansion, the likes of which neither Dean or Roman had ever seen before in person. The mansion also had several outbuildings in its grounds which now appeared to have been converted into living or communal areas for the residents of the camp. There were several people in sight and they all looked to be busy.

"Look at that," Dean said quietly to Roman. Both men were looking wide eyed at the same thing; a dark haired woman was pushing a shopping cart full of canned foods towards one of the mansion's outbuildings. A makeshift canteen maybe? Another attractive dark haired woman was hanging some freshly washed clothes out to dry in front of one of the houses, and a group of three men were working on a large vegetable garden nearby, although they had just stopped to stare at the new visitors, or intruders as their expressions seemed to indicate. Then something else occurred to Dean. All of these men were clean shaven. He could not even remember the last time he had shaved or gotten his hair cut. Both he and Roman were a real mess of dirt and hair but it appeared that those things could be fixed quickly here, if they were allowed to enter.

Another well built man who had long dark hair down to his shoulders appeared. "Go bring those guns in," the enormous man from the guard tower ordered the new arrival, meaning the guns that Roman and Dean had set down on the road outside.

The new arrival did as he was ordered and headed off into the camp with the guns. "Those are our fucking guns," Dean protested angrily as he did so.

"Not any more," he was told. "Nothing in this camp belongs to you, so get that clear."

"Shut up, Dean," Roman urged. His attention had already been attracted by two people who had walked out of the mansion. One was a blonde woman dressed in an army uniform and the other was yet another huge guy. This guy was bald and looked like a real meathead. The meathead was carrying a gun, but the woman was not, which seemed a little odd as she was apparently the one who had been in the army. Was this the Sergeant Rousey they were waiting on? Roman wondered.

"We're waiting on a fucking woman?" Dean asked the man who was guarding them in surprise.

He was even more surprised that the reaction he got was a smile. "Talk like that when she gets here, please?" The man requested, his tone leaving no doubt that doing so would be a very bad idea indeed.

"She looks hot," Dean mumbled next, this time only loud enough for Roman to hear. Roman didn't reply but he had to admit that the comment was true. The woman was very attractive and she was wearing a short sleeved army shirt which revealed that she had very powerful arms, especially for a woman. He recognised the insignia on the shirt and knew from it that the woman was, or had been, a staff sergeant in the army. The name Rousey was on the upper right side of the shirt. The woman was marching quickly towards them, but as she passed the men who had been working on the vegetable garden she stopped as they all stood to attention. Roman found himself surprised that they didn't actually salute, but this at least didn't seem to be required.

"Nothing to do, Sandow?" She asked one of them loudly and aggressively.

"No ma'am. I mean yes ma'am," the dark haired man called Sandow stuttered sheepishly.

"Then do it," he was ordered abruptly. All three men resumed their work vigorously as the woman marched the rest of the way over to where Dean and Roman stood. She stood in front of them, several feet away and studied them for a moment in silence with the meathead by her side. Roman had instinctively drawn himself to attention as he sensed that even if this was not actually this woman's camp then she certainly had a lot to do with running the place. Dean however was standing in his usual casual manner, seeming not to care how he appeared to the woman who studied him. "You let these men in, Kane?" She demanded eventually, addressing the seven foot monster without looking at him.

"Yes ma'am," the man whose surname was apparently Kane replied. "They say they're looking for food."

"Looking for food," Rousey repeated, as if considered the statement. Finally she addressed Roman, walking closer to him. "You're wearing police issue gear. Is it yours or did you steal it?" She almost barked at him.

"It's ours ma'am," Roman confirmed respectfully. "We were police officers."

"Police officers," she repeated, considering the response again. Slowly she moved on to stand in front of Dean. "Police officers who don't know how to stand to attention?"

Without bothering to hide his reluctance Dean straightened himself. "We just want some food, that's all," he said, and then quickly added, "And our guns back."

The woman grunted which seemed to indicate sarcasm of some kind as she returned to stand next to the meathead who had accompanied her. "Listen up, and listen up good," she barked, as she seemed to with everything that she said. Roman considered that there were probably not many people left in the world who screamed army more than this woman. "I'm Sergeant Rousey, you will address me as sergeant or ma'am. This camp belongs to Hunter Helmsley and his wife Nicole, but as far as you and everyone else are concerned, this is _my_ camp. My camp, my rules. The rules are non negotiable and apply to everyone here. You will be given jobs to do. You will do the jobs that I assign to you and follow any orders I give you without question. In return you will be paid in the form of food, drink, and a roof over your heads. Fail to do the jobs I assign to you or follow my orders and you will forced to leave, minus your weapons of course."

"Sorry," Dean cut in before she could go any further. "We're looking for a camp to live in, not a fucking prison. Give us our guns back and we'll get out of here."

"Shut up," Roman told his friend, although he was not totally convinced about staying in the camp and following orders from this woman himself, even though they really needed the food, drink and somewhere to stay.

The meathead spoke next, sounding a little unsure as to whether he should have done so even as he did it. "Ma'am, we need more men, especially good ones."

Again Rousey did not divert her attention away from Dean and Roman as she barked a reply. "You're in charge here Ryback?"

"No ma'am," Ryback almost shouted, as a subordinate would do. "But we do need men," he added more quietly.

When Rousey next spoke to Dean and Roman a moment later her voice had softened by a tiny fraction. They both recognised that this was a lot more significant with her than it would be with most other people. "Names, gentlemen?" They both provided their names. "Ambrose," she continued, "Look around you. Do these people look like prison inmates to you?"

"No ma'am," Dean answered instinctively, surprised at himself for using the correct form of address. There was something about this woman and her attitude that he actually liked. If it wasn't his face that she was in he would have been admiring her for it, in a way at least. The people in the camp looked to be busy, but well fed and in good health. A lot better than the shit state that he was in himself right now, that was for sure.

"You were both police officers," Rousey continued. "You shouldn't need me to tell you the way the world works. Shit flows downwards. I get orders from above, I give orders to those below me, just like the army. That's how things work here. If this camp didn't have this setup and its strict rules it wouldn't still be here. Things are done this way because it works. Do what I tell you, when I tell you, and you can live relatively comfortably here until we figure out what the hell the deal is with these walkers, and how to deal with them on a more permanent basis. Sound good?" She had said the final two words a lot more loudly than the rest and had drawn out the first of them. Roman found a smile coming to his face and found himself thinking that he could understand why men would follow Rousey into battle, she just had the charisma for leadership. He had a vision of her walking up behind someone and praising them on their work and that simple act making that person's whole day.

"Yes ma'am," they both answered.

With that Rousey nodded to Kane. "Bring that car in and then close the gate." She looked at Dean and Roman and ordered, "Walk with me."

The two men fell in either side of her as she continued, "You're going to go into this first house here on your left and ask for Lillian. She'll cut your hair for you and give you supplies to shave with, as well as clean clothes to wear while someone washes yours for you. There's also hot water for you to shower. Apparently you need it," she added as something approaching a joke.

"Can we get something to eat and drink?" Dean asked. That was much more of an urgency than a haircut.

The question caused Rousey to pause for a moment before replying. "We all eat at the same time in the canteen," she began, but then her tone softened ever so slightly as it had done earlier, "But I'll have something brought down to you right away. Make yourselves at home." By this point they were at the end of garden pathway that led up to the open front door of the house that they had been told to go into. "You'll report to me at oh eight hundred hours tomorrow to be assigned your jobs." Then a smile actually appeared on her face. "If you're anything like the last cop I let into this place you'll be good on the supply runs."

She began to march away but Roman's instincts had just told him something. "Seth Rollins? Seth Rollins lives here?" He shouted after her.

"Yeah, he does," a very familiar voice answered from behind them, in the direction of the house.

"Oh my fucking God," Dean grinned as he turned around and saw his other closest friend walking out of the house towards them. Against all the odds Seth was indeed alive and not only that, they had found him. Compared to them, Seth looked great. His beard was neatly trimmed, his hair and clothes were clean and he looked very well fed. In fact he was the picture of health. Dean and Seth rushed towards each other and grabbed each other in a tight hug.

"I can't believe you guys made it here," Seth said as he slapped Dean on the back several times.

"We nearly didn't, several times," Roman said from nearby.

Seth released Dean and accepted Roman's hug next. The huge Samoan was almost as much of a big brother as he was a friend to both Seth and Dean. "I didn't think I'd see you again," Seth said, feeling a lump forming in his throat.

"Sorry to disappoint," Roman laughed to try to conceal the fact the he felt tears stinging his eyes. Seth and Dean meant more to him than even they knew, given that it wasn't a guy thing to explain to your closest friends how much they actually meant to you. Not knowing what had happened to Seth had been eating away at him ever since they had been separated, and now here he was, living a relative life of luxury, just as Roman and Dean had often joked.

"This Rousey woman," Dean chirped as Seth released Roman, looking around for her but failing to see where she had gone. "I kind of like her. I bet she's a great fuck."

"She is," Seth took great pleasure in revealing.

Dean's eyes widened. "You and her?"

"You know me," Seth grinned. "I don't waste time. Ronda's the boss around here but she's got a softer side behind the bluster. Don't tell her I said that or let on though. This place runs like clockwork and that's all because of her and the respect everyone has for her. She'd put her life on the line for anyone in this camp."

"This fucker is unreal isn't he?" Roman laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Dude could talk a nun into bed."

Seth laughed as he began to lead the way towards the house. "Come on guys, let's get you settled in."

* * *

 _Author's notes:_

 _A one shot for now, but possibly an introduction to something bigger in the future._


End file.
